


Would You Want Me (If I Want You)

by Lulatic



Series: Fears and Insecurities [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Fluff, Feels, I'll clean up these tags later, Keith-Centric, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slight Hurt/Comfort, Zero Gravity Shenanigans, a lot of talks about feelings, background shallura - Freeform, lots of fluff at the end oh boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-20 14:32:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8252606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lulatic/pseuds/Lulatic
Summary: “Well, maybe you just need to relax,” Lance said with a hum, running a hand through his hair as he grinned down at Keith, his back towards the roof. “So just… lean back and enjoy the weightlessness. It’s…. Nice, right?” Lance didn’t know why he was feeling so sheepish all of the sudden, his lips a thin line. Maybe it was the way Keith looked at him from behind his hair, or the fingers clutching the fabric of his shirt, or the slim legs intertwined with his, or the way the lighting seemed to bounce off of Keith’s skin like he was made of glass.Whatever it was, it made Lance want to do something stupid. Or; Keith discovering Lance enjoys messing with Altean technology a bit more than he should leads to Keith finally acting on how he feels.After talking it out, of course.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The sequel oneshot to my other oneshot, which you can read [right here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7958257) Don't worry, this can be read as a standalone thing too. 
> 
> This was supposed to be short. 5000 words at the max. What happened.
> 
> title is from the song [Coming Over by Dillon Francis.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vUQLjsK1ng0)

Before space, before The Castle Lion became his home, Keith had been alone for a very, very long time.

In between intergalactic struggles and fighting the Galra empire, no one ever seemed to sit down for a moment and just reminisce about life before all of that. There was no talks about personal things, about childhoods, about families and memories of the past.

Keith couldn’t say that he didn’t understand; with everything going on, they sometimes barely ever got the chance to just sit down and talk to one another. Yet, at the same time, Keith had kind of figured that maybe, just maybe… Everyone else was like him. Maybe they didn’t actually have anything they wanted to talk about, or maybe looking back was a bit too painful.

Keith’s childhood lacked a lot of things; a family, a steady home, security, company, friendship. All those things that made someone’s childhood so special, memorable, so that they could look back and smile, were absent. When Keith looked back --although he really, really tried not to-- all he could remember was anger, that constant feeling of abandonment weighing down on him, and jumping from foster home to foster home. His anger issues are too much for us to handle, was a constant excuse, along with we thought we could do it, but we’re not ready.

But that was okay, that was fine. It was all in the past anyways, Keith would tell himself on nights where he couldn’t sleep in the Garrison, unable to push his thoughts out of his mind as he stared up at the dark ceiling. He saw no point in looking back anyways. Don’t look back, focus on the now.

When Keith had been dragged into space, suddenly finding himself trapped in space with a bunch of people he didn’t know and the only brother-like figure in his life, it had been a lot to take in. It took some getting used to, took a few nights for Keith to come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t in that desert shack anymore, that there was other people there willing to get to know him.

It took a while, took a bit of poking and prodding, a few ‘you should go talk with the others’ speeches from Shiro, but Keith had done it. He had opened up, peeled back the defensive walls he had put up. He had let Hunk and Pidge, Allura, Lance and Coran in.

It took a while, but ‘team’ and ‘family’ started to mean the same thing to him.

For the first time that Keith could remember, there was a sense of… Belonging; he needed to be in that Castle, the Red Lion needed him to be it’s Paladin, the universe needed him, Voltron needed him. But the others didn’t just need him there-- they wanted him there.

Sure, he was still out of the loop on a few things; he didn’t know what Lance was upset or when Pidge needed a break like hunk did; he couldn’t make Allura laugh and smile like Shiro could; (although that relationship was something else entirely) he couldn’t run on with a conversation, talking about both nothing and everything like Coran or Lance. But that was okay, Keith could deal with all that. As long as he never lost his purpose, his reason for being there. As long as he still had all of their trust, he was happy. More than happy.

He was closest with Shiro, subconsciously keeping everyone else at an arm's length. Shiro was the closest thing he would ever have to a brother, afterall. They had been close before the Kerberos mission, before Shiro had been through hell and back, and Keith was glad to have him back. He had been the only person Keith had ever actually confided in before all of this.

Maybe that was why, when Lance started giving him all that attention, claiming him as his rival, that Keith had fallen for him.

It was inevitable, and terrifying, and something so confusing and foreign to Keith. Lance was the last person on earth-- in the universe that Keith figured he would have fallen for. They were complete opposites; Lance was loud and out there, Keith was quiet and reserved; Lance was nosy but sensitive, Keith kept to himself but was resilient; Lance was ice, Keith was fire. Opposites.

But, maybe that was why Keith liked him so much, or maybe it was the things they had in common, the arguments they both strived off of, the snarky remarks and eye rolls. Whatever it was, Keith had fallen for him. Hard.

He didn’t really know when it happened, our how, but he started to see something else when he looked at Lance; the way his lips curled into a smirk, the long eyelashes shadowing his eyes, the way he moved, the way he walked, the way he laughed, talked, smiled. Things Keith found annoying either became endearing, or disappeared along with the stupid rivalry.

That was another thing; their ‘rivalry’. It had all been one sided, a part of Lance’s weird imagination, obviously. Sure, Keith had egged him on sometimes, with a random comment and ly remark here and there, but how could he resist? Lance made it so easy.

But, at some point, and Keith didn’t really know when, their relationship… evolved. Maybe it was because of Voltron, of Shiro and Allura and the universe making them work together. Or maybe it was just Keith’s infatuation, or Lance’s generally care-free, easy-going, friendly personality.

Either way, as Lance’s rivalry melded down into soft challenges and bets, they started to get closer, too. Keith noticed it, Shiro should did too. --Keith remembered that conversation, the soft smile and firm pat on the back, ‘I’m glad you two are getting along.’-- He didn’t know if Lance saw it, if he was aware of how scowls turned into full blown grins, narrowed eyes into winks, crude gestures into high fives.

Sure, Keith knew he wasn’t the kind of friend Hunk was to him, or that he never would be. But he was happy to be his friend.  
  
_Friend_.

Maybe that’s why Keith felt so bad, so guilty, when he starting to think of Lance as more than that.

This-- all of this, was uncharted territory for Keith. He was a stranger to these feelings, to how Lance made him feel, to how he’d lay awake at night thinking about how much he wanted to kiss him, to run his fingers through his short brown hair, to feel with his own fingertips if that skincare routine of his was actually working, to taste that stupid, obnoxious, fucking _gorgeous_ smirk.

But that, all of that, was… out of bounds. Even if it made his blood pump into his cheeks and his heart skip a beat at just the thought of it. Even if Keith’s fingers itched to reach out whenever Keith saw that smile. Even if he wanted to do nothing more than kiss that cocky, trademark smirk right off of his lips.

He couldn’t. Because Keith had built something here with everyone, with Lance; a family, a friendship. He knew that it would all come crashing down if he acted on his instincts, his gut feeling.

Keith was thinking logically this time. His feelings getting the better of him would be catastrophic.

No matter what Pidge said.

* * *

 “Pidge, _holy fucking crap_ \--”

“Watch your language. Remember! I’m like, twelve apparently.”

“--will you ever just… drop it?”

Pidge scoffed, rolling their eyes. Keith turned another corner, Pidge following suit as he headed towards the training deck. The annoying, constant hum of mechanical wheels-- along with Pidge’s nosy attitude-- was driving Keith insane.

“Uh, no?” They said, like it was obvious. Keith grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away, hoping that his face wasn’t as red as it felt.

“First of all, I was going to let you and Lance off easy,” Pidge hummed, looking down at the holographic sort of ipad they were holding in there hands, using it to control the newly made robot trailing behind them. Pidge had said that he just wanted to take it for a test run, see what needed to be polished, what screws needed to be tighten. But Keith knew he just was using it --and it’s stupid, annoying, mechanical, jerky humming-- as a torturing device.

Keith remembered when Pidge had started making it, not long after the death of Rover. Everyone had figured it was a replacement, some sort of Rover2.0. Which was why it was surprising when Pidge explained he was going to teach a robot to sing instead of… whatever the other Rover did.

“So, why is it named Kirby?” Keith had asked one day, while he was sitting on Pidge’s workbench, picking at his nails with his dagger. He stopped to look over at Pidge skeptically, “did you name it after the Kerberos mission?” He had said before he could think twice and realize that he should maybe not ask that.

Pidge had glanced out from under the square form of the robot, nudging their glasses farther up the bridge of their nose. “I just really like Kirby games, okay? Get off my dick,” Pidge had rolled their eyes, “and why the hell would I name a karaoke robot after the thing that my family got torn apart over?” Keith had nodded his head, looking back down at his jagged nails. “Point.”

“ _Secondly_ ,” Pidge continued, their impatient voice popping Keith out of his thoughts. He rolled his eyes at the look they were sending him. “It’s been-- what, two weeks?”

“Three.”

“Okay, yeah, three weeks. That doesn’t make it any better, hun. Worse, actually,” Keith shook his head, walking faster at the scoff in their voice. “But, it’s been weeks since I caught you two snogging out on that surfboard--”

Now that made Keith’s quick pace grind to a halt, stopping so suddenly Kirby knocked right into his legs. He gave a second to glare down at the musical beeps and whirs it made before looking at Pidge. They smirked at Keith’s red face. “Okay, _what_?” He scoffed, crossing his arms. “Snogging? Really, Pidge? we-we weren’t--”

“Oh, please,” Pidge scoffed, interrupting Keith with a single raised hand. “I may have been half asleep, covered up to my neck in sand, and burnt to a crisp, but I totally saw you and Lance getting close on that surfboard out there on the water that day.”

He bit his tongue, not wanting to tell Pidge the real reason for what happened all those days ago, out on the ocean of an alien planet. His pride was wounded enough as it was --having Lance, the person he had been hopelessly crushing on for so long, see him have a panic attack and then having to admit his deepest fear to him had really knocked his ego down a few pegs. He was still emotionally recovering from that.

He couldn’t imagine how horrible it would be, telling Pidge about his fear of water. They already had enough blackmail material as it was.

Keith was shaking his head as he turned away, walking quickly in a sort of hope that maybe Pidge would fall behind, go the other way, and just forget about this subject entirely. Of course, with Pidge struggling to keep pace, that didn’t look like it was going to happen any time soon.

“Y’know, when I crawled out of that sand pile,” Pidge huffed, sounding slightly out of breath as they held the holographic pad to their chest, “and ran to find Hunk, I thought, ‘oh boy! Time to write my wedding speech’.” --Keith’s shoulders were up to his burning ears at that point-- “like, I legit was hearing those alien wedding bells. Hunk and I were going to make the best cake you’ve ever seen-- but, no!”

Pidge threw their free arm up in the air, acting as if Keith’s nonexistent love life was their business. “Nope, nada! You and Lance came back to the Castle before we could even get out the decorative napkins, standing at least five feet apart, and you were looking at anything but the dork beside you! Something happened in between me waking up in the sand and you guys scrambling back to the Castle as the sun sets. So, what the hell happened?”

“Pidge,” Keith said sternly, deadpanning over at their frown, “you’re making a big deal out of nothing, honestly. Nothing happened between us, we just… went out on that surfboard, came back, and that was it.” Not to mention the bonding, the conversation about fears, the panic attack, and the one-sided almost kiss. But Keith kept his mouth shut-- Pidge really didn’t need to know all the details.

Keith was rubbing the back of his neck, feeling relieved when he saw the training room door down the empty hall, the dull sound of a gun firing echoing into the corridor. “Really,” Keith said awkwardly, “we should just… drop this topic. And maybe never bring it up again--”

“Okay, cut the crap,” Pidge suddenly said, pulling Keith to a stop as they grabbed onto his arm. Keith halted again, instinctively crossing his arms, glaring down at the small, blocky robot instead of looking at Pidge.

“Keith,” They said sternly, but softly at the same time, the kind of tone that told Keith that they were serious, but trying to be comforting too. “Listen, I know I’m not as perceptive as Hunk, or that we’re not as close as you and Shiro, but I know when something’s up. And something is up here.”

“Pidge, I--”

“No, nope,” Pidge interrupted again, shaking their head. “Don’t pull this whole ‘it’s no big deal’ bullcrap on me. Something happened between you two that day, I can see it. Everyone can see it in the way you look at him, or the way he looks at you--”

“Okay, Pidge, really,” Keith sighed, dragging a hand through his hair. “This… Isn’t any of your business, okay? Can we just drop this?” Keith looked down at Pidge, his gaze unwavering as Pidge tilted their head to the side, a frown knitting their eye brows together. Eventually, they let out a sigh, their shoulders drooping. “Fine, I’ll stay in my own lane,” they whined, sounding less than willing as the crossed their arms.

“Just this once,” Keith heard them mutter under their breath, rolling his eyes as he turned down the hall, walking towards the training deck as Pidge went the other way, guiding the annoying robot Kirby down the hall.

Keith let out a drawn out sigh as he stood outside the door to the training deck, giving himself a moment to breath and think about what Pidge had said to him. He sucked in a low breath, holding his hand over his mouth, his face burning as he leaned back against the cold, metal wall.

“ _The way he looks at you_.’ What did Pidge mean by that? Keith knew how he looked at Lance --from across the dining room table, down the hall, only ever at the back of Lance’s head when he is turned away, when he can’t see the flustered blush on Keith’s face.

But… what did Pidge mean? How in the hell could Lance look at him? Not in the same way, no. definitely not. Lance’s flirty remarks and sly, teasing tones directed at him were one thing. That was just Lance being Lance, he knew that. But Pidge was talking like there was more to it then that.

“Oh, Keith!” a voice cutting into the near silence made Keith look up, seeing Shiro walking out of the training room and into the hall, the sound of guns firing and someone hollering echoing out with him. He shot Keith a worn out, tired grin, his white hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. “What are you doing out here?”

“I-I, uh,” Keith stammered, his teeth worrying his bottom lip. “I was talking with Pidge. They just left.” Shiro raised a single eyebrow, a kind of grin on his face that told Keith he didn’t believe his half-lie. “Oh, really now?” Shiro snickered as Keith glowered up at him. “Are you just trying to blame Pidge for being late to training, or is there something else going on?”

Keith went to say something, only to close his mouth again, hating how his body was betraying him, a blush warming his face. Shiro was full on laughing now, his robotic hand resting on Keith’s shoulder. “Wh-what are you laughing at?” Keith barked, shoving Shiro away from him. The way his voice cracked only made Shiro lose it. “Damnit, just… stop jumping to conclusions! You’re just as bad as Pidge!”

“Hey, I didn’t say anything,” Shiro hummed, wiping his eyes with one hand. “I’m not the one jumping to conclusions here, buddy.” Keith huffed, crossing his arms and hoping the glare he was looking at Shiro would hide his red face. If the cheeky look on Shiro’s face was anything to go by, it really wasn’t working.

“So… am I too late to train?” Keith said, hoping that Shiro would take the hint and change the subject. He did, (thank god) but not without shooting Keith a smirk that told him he was going to remember this later. “I’d say you could squeeze in some training,” Shiro hummed as he walked past Keith, looking over his shoulder. “But Lance has already taken over the training room and made it into some sort of shooting range.”

“Lance?” Keith called out after Shiro, sounding disbelieving. “Since when does he ever train by himself?” Keith scoffed, remembering the many times either him or Hunk had to drag him out of bed for some team training exercises.

“Just go see for yourself,” Shiro’s voice echoed, waving before he turned a corner, disappearing out of sight. Keith crossed his arms, biting into his cheek as he wondered how he would go about training if Lance really was in there.

But, after Shiro pointed it out, Keith could hear the echo of a gun shooting, sounding like laser beams that they had all gotten familiar with too many times, and the Lance’s unmistakable hollering. Lance really was in there all right, practicing with his bayard like Shiro had suggested. There was no way Keith could get in some training now, already having missed his chance. (Well, technically he could try to stay in a corner and work out, but he wasn’t really keen on catching one of Lance’s stray lasers.)

Honestly, Keith no longer had a reason to be there anymore. He was late, (thanks to Pidge and Kirby) had missed his chance to train, and wasn’t able to boot Lance out without getting some cross looks from the others. He didn’t need to be there, standing in the hall, his back pressed against cold metal.

 _I should just leave_ , Keith thought to himself. It lingered in his mind as he pushed away from the wall, pivoting around to peer in the wide open door. The thought disappeared when he instantly recognized Lance, taking a knee on the floor, his laser rifle in his hands.

Keith’s eyes widened, his interest peaking when he saw the concentration etched into Lance’s fixtures, his whole body tensed as he fired shot after shot after shot at targets Keith couldn’t see properly.

He was surprised, to say the least. Keith practically lived in the training room. (‘Workout hermit’ Lance had once called him.) He knew whenever someone scheduled to have the training deck to themself, which was usually Allura, Hunk, and Shiro. He couldn’t remember the last time he had willingly seen Lance train on his own.

But the way his eyebrows were knit together, his focus unwavering, made Keith wonder if he somehow found a way to sneak in some practice without Keith knowing.

His jacket was gone, tossed away into the corner against the wall like it was useless to him, leaving Lance in only his blue and grey shirt. He was quick, a vicious cycle of aim, shoot, and move on to the next target. Keith didn’t need to see the targets to know that he was deadly accurate.

Keith found himself walking into the doorway, peering around to see what Lance was so fixated on; holographic figures flickered and shone shades of blue at the far end of the training deck. He couldn’t help but notice that they seemed to appear at random, from all over the room, each one looking like the Gladiator Keith always fought.

Most of them instantly rushed into a charge, heading in Lance’s direction, but could barely take a step before they were shot. Keith raised his eyebrows, blinking as a streak of blue hit one hologram, bursting into glowing pixels before disappearing.

Keith leaned against the wall, his arms crossed as he watched, completely fixated on Lance’s clenched jaw, on aiming, shooting, taking out each hologram with one shot. He noticed how he suddenly started to speed up, the holograms appearing in the blink of an eye more rapidly. Lance was relentless.

The holograms started getting closer and closer, swords made of like drawn ready. Keith bit into his lip, silently urging Lance own, even though he knew Lance didn’t need the moral support-- he was a good enough shot without it, obviously.

Keith nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice ringing through the air, sounding clipped and robotic; “ **TRAINING SESSION 3.2 COMPLETE. PLEASE ADVANCE TO THE NEXT LEVEL.** ” He noticed, right as Lance sighed and put his bayard down, shoulders relaxing, that the holograms had stopped appearing.

Lance groaned out, tilting his head back and laughing loudly. “Alright!” He huffed, throwing his arms in the air and pulling himself to his feet to dance victoriously. Unseen, Keith rolled his eyes at him.

“Hunk!” Lance called out, spinning around to look up to the one sided mirror leading to the observation deck above the training room. “How’m I doing? Have I beaten the record yet?”

“ _By a landslide_ ,” Hunk’s cheery voice broke through the intercom, echoing throughout the room. “ _You’ve beaten your previous time by a tick and a half._ ” Keith looked up at the mirror, seeing Lance pouting it, looking down at his gun on the ground. He was surprised that Lance hadn’t seen him yet.

“What? _Only_ a second?” Lance whined, his fingers roughly threading through his hair. He glanced up at the glass, then turning to glare down at his gun. “God, I thought I was on a roll there--”

“ _You were!_ ” Hunk chimed in, trying to cheer Lance up. But Lance was too stubborn to admit that what he had done was pretty impressive. “ _One and a half ticks is quite a lot! Besides, improvement takes time and a lot of practice, Lance. Give yourself some credit.”_

Lance’s frown fixed into a determined scowl, crouching down to pick up his rifle, getting back into the same position as before. “Oh, screw at that time stuff!” Lance’s voice echoed, “I’ve got to get better. I can’t just be the team’s deadbeat. Now C’mon, throw some more at me, Hunk!”

“ _Lance, you’re not--”_

“Up it to level 3.7,” Lance interrupted, taking a knee and grinning down the barrel of his energy rifle. “No, wait! Let’s do level 4! I can take it! Those holograms won’t even know what hit ‘em.” There was a hesitant pause on Hunk’s end, Lance impatiently drumming his fingers against the side of his Bayard.

“ _A-actually_!” Hunk hummed, his voice booming. Keith blinked, narrowing his eyes up at the observation deck at his giggling tone of voice, silently daring him to continue. Which he did, of course. “ _I think your time is up in here. Someone else might want to train.”_

Keith hunched his shoulders up to his ears, knowing that Hunk was basically just calling him out for snooping. “Dammit,” he hissed under his breath. He could’ve sworn he heard Hunk chuckle.

“Wait,” Lance hummed, his eyes narrowed as he looked up towards where Hunk was hiding before wiping his head around to look towards the door. “Who could--” His eyes widened, eyebrows raised when he saw Keith leaning against the wall, trying to look as disinterested as possible.

Lance was blushing, his face tinged red and flustered as his bayard deactivated in a twirl of blue light. “Oh, uh,” he gulped, standing up and rubbing the back of his neck. He didn’t see the fond smirk on Keith’s face. “What’re you doing here? You want the training room to yourself?”

Keith shook his head, biting his lip as he pushed off of the wall and walked closer. “No,” he said simply, “you can continue.” Lance blinked at him, before a mischievous grin found it’s way onto his face, making Keith groan under his breath.

“Oh,” Lance sang, looking at Keith like he knew everything about him, “I see how it is. You just want to come watch the fireworks, huh?”

Keith frowned, tilting his head to the side as Lance flexed, much more cocky than he had been when he didn’t know Keith was even there. “No?” He hummed, sounding confused. “I came here to see what all that hollering was about.”

“Well, that's one horrible excuse,” Lance scoffed, “you’re just in denial.” The low tone in his voice made Keith gulp, the way he tilted his head, the way his lips curled into a grin. Keith didn’t notice that they were only standing a few feet apart until Lance was leaning a bit closer. Keith’s whole body tensed, his face on fire.

“I-In denial of what?” Keith asked, trying to keep his voice as level as possible, trying to sound annoyed and confused instead of as flustered as he felt. Lance was biting his lip, a shadow over his eyes as he smirked. Keith couldn’t stop thinking about how if he just nudged forward a bit, just a few inches--

“That you’re here to watch me train,” Lance hummed lowly, like it was a given. “Of course. I mean, I understand it, n’all. Who wouldn’t want to watch me working out?”

Keith couldn’t help but roll his eyes, shaking his head back and forth disbelievingly. The challenging, matter-of-fact tone in his voice picking at Keith’s pride almost pushed his heart out of his throat. Almost.

Keith’s breath was shaky as he choked on a taunt; “oh, you’re so full of yourself, L-Lance.” He didn’t get a reply, Lance seemingly to preoccupied by tracing his eyes over Keith’s face, his lips, his nose, his cheeks. Keith’s heart couldn’t stop thundering, his hands sweaty, his thoughts running rampant. _He’s close. Oh god he's too close. Move away, get away, before_ \--

“ _Uhhhh_ ….” Hunk’s voice, awkward and hesitant, seemed to snap the two of them out of their trance. Lance jumped away a few feet, straightening his back and looking towards the observation deck. Keith was covering his mouth with one hand, letting himself breath in, and out, to steal over his emotions. The panic that had been bubbling in his chest dissipated, leaving his heart empty and aching.

 _“I don’t mean to interrupt your weird… flirting thing,_ ” Hunk tried to drown out a cheeky laugh with a cough, clearing his throat as Keith rolled his eyes. _He’s just like Pidge, too._

“Well, you kinda did,” Lance huffed under his breath, sounding… disappointed? He spoke louder, biting the inside of his cheek as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. “What’s the problem, Hunkalicious?”

“ _Coran wanted me to help him mess around with one of the hologram projectors in the control room about now_ ,” Hunk hummed, “ _but Shiro also told me that you can’t be alone in here anymore ever since the gravity thing you did._ ” Keith blinked, shaking his head back and forth to look at Lance. “Gravity thing?” He asked under his breath, “what did you do?”

Lance turned to look at him, about to answer Keith’s question, only to clamp his mouth shut when his eyes widened, his whole face lighting up as a mischievous grin took over. Keith frowned, crossing his arms, but biting his tongue when Lance held up a hand to silence him. “Oh, don’t worry ‘bout that!” He yelled up to Hunk, “It’s not like I need a babysitter or something. I’m an adult, dammit!”

“Oh really, I couldn’t tell,” Keith scoffed, getting a sour look from Lance, but otherwise no reaction as Hunk whined into the intercom. “ _I dunno about that, Lance…._ ” --Lance groaned as Keith snickered-- “ _I_ _mean_ , _it is Allura and Shiro’s orders after_ _all. Wouldn’t want another Lance-centric fiasco.”_

Keith’’s curiosity was through the roof at that point; _what fiasco? What the hell did Lance do that was so bad Hunk is permanently on lance-sitting duty?_ His mind was screaming, but he just bit into his tongue, literally, to keep himself from speaking up as Lance argued with Hunk, his hands on his hips.

“But really, Hunk!” He huffed, gesturing over to Keith dramatically, “it’s not like I’m alone in here or something! You can be relieved of caretaking while Keith is here, let him shoulder the weight of watching me like a creep for a while.”

_“.... I don’t know, Lance. I don’t like that smirk on your face.”_

“If it helps,” Keith spoke up, feeling two pairs of eyes on him, “I’ll make him do push-ups if he does anything weird.” He could practically hear Hunk silently considering, obviously thinking that Keith was being honest about the push-ups. (He kind of was) But he could also feel the offended, flabbergasted, _why-would-you-betray-me-like-this_ look Lance was sending him. He chose not to make eye contact.

“... _fine_ ,” Hunk sighed, Lance hissing out a quiet ‘yes!’, already dancing. “ _But only because I have other things to do today. Keith, I’m holding you up to that promise. Lance, I’ll be back to check on you guys every once in awhile, to make sure that the training room is still operational.”_

With a quick ‘bye!’, the intercom clicked off, falling silent. Keith, his arms still crossed, whipped around to face Lance. “Okay, why the hell do you need someone to babysit you while you’re in here?” Keith demanded, figuring that now that Hunk had disappeared, leaving just the two of them, Lance would give a straightforward answer. “What did you do?”

Keith groaned when his only response was a cheeky grin, a wink that made his heart flutter, and Lance positing around on his heels. “Lance,” Keith huffed as he walked towards the wall underneath the big windows of the observation deck. Keith grit his teeth together, digging his nails into his arms at being ignored.

“Can you shut the door?” Lance chimed, completely phasing past everything Keith had said. He was running his hands across the wall, humming and digging his fingers into every slight crevasse like he was searching for something.

“How about you tell me what you did first,” Keith huffed, his tone telling Lance that there was no room for discussion on this topic. Rolling his eyes at bland metal walls, Lance craned his neck back to look at Keith with an unamused look. “Have you ever heard the expression ‘curiosity killed the cat?’ I mean, okay that doesn’t _exactly_ apply to this situation, but calm down anyways, kitty cat.”

Keith bit into his bottom lip, his face flooding red, but his glare and his posture unwavering. Lance levelled his gaze at him for another second, before letting back a sigh and going back to smoothing his fingers against cold metal. “Okay, how ‘bout, you get your fine ass over there, close the door for your dearly beloved right here, and then I’ll show you what I did to deserve such unfair punishment.”

Keith was sputtering, his whole train of thought derailing. _How dare he use flirting, stupid nicknames, and that damned cute face,_ Keith thought to himself with a grumble, even as he made his way over to the door. _This asshole thinks he can make anyone a flustered, blushing mess with just a wink._

“S-so,” Keith gulped, his palm flat against the padlock. The door slid shut with a familiar, airy _woosh_. “I’ve closed the door for you. Now, talk.”

“Nuh-uh,” Lance clicked his tongue against the roof off his mouth, shaking his head back and forth mockingly, like he was scolding a child. Keith’s frown deepened when he noticed that Lance had somehow opened some sort of panel in the wall, his hands out of sit behind a small square latch.

Keith blinked, tilting his head to the side. “Lance, what are yo--”

“Lock the door first!”

“But how--”

“Lock! Lock _lock_ \--”

“Okay!” Keith yelled back through gritted teeth, throwing his arms in the air with a huff. “I’ll lock the fucking door if you’ll shut up!” He turned around to harshly press a button beside the door, hearing a solid _click_ as the glowing lights on the door turned red.

“There,” Keith growled out, on hand on his hip. “You happy now?” Lance shot him a thin smirk, his eyes just slits. “Thank you, sunshine,” he hummed, turning back to digging around in the compartment in the wall. “I’m glad we could come to an agreement.”

Keith grumbled something under his breath as he walked towards Lance, making Lance shoot him a small frown before going back to rummaging around in… whatever he was looking at. “What are you doing?” Keith asked, standing behind Lance and peering over his shoulder. He frowned when he saw the purplish glow sticking to Lance’s skin, shining crystals nestled among coiling wires.

“You probably shouldn’t be touching all that,” Keith said as Lance brushed past wires, digging around like he messing with alien technology was his favourite pastime. Lance clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, starting to dig deeper into the circuitry at Keith’s half-assed warning.

“Don’t you worry your pretty lil’ head about me, kitty cat,” Lance hummed with a sly smirk, not needing to look over his shoulder that Keith’s face was burning red. “It isn’t like this is my first rodeo. Besides, I thought you wanted to know why Shiro thinks I shouldn’t be alone in this room anymore?”

“Well, yeah,” Keith said with a huff and an eyeroll, “but I figured you had just done something exceptionally stupid, like… shooting yourself in the leg or something.” Lance whined at that, his shoulders up to his ears and a pout on his face as he looked back at Keith. “Hey,” he huffed, bottom lip sticking out, “I’ll have you know that I am a pro with my laser gun bayard thing. As if I, the great, master marksman, Lance, would shoot myself in the leg.”

Keith crouched down on one knee beside him, his hand flat against the wall as he stayed a safe distance from the exposed inner workings of the training room. “I mean, I guess I just figured that having a giant Balmeran crystal blow up in your face and nearly kill you would have taught you that, hey, maybe you shouldn’t mess with alien shit.”

Lance waved his hand, shaking his head like Keith was the one being ridiculous, going back to poking at glowing crystals. “Being the voice of reason doesn’t really suit you, Keith,” Lance said with a shrug, “and besides, Hunk actually taught me how to do this.”

“I highly doubt that,” Keith scoffed, “and taught you to do what?”

"Just… gimme a minute,” Lance said, completely ignoring the frustrated, annoyed glare Keith was staring at the side of his head with. Sticking out his tongue, he tried his best to bite down on the grin on his face. “Hunk had been fixin’ up something in here,” he continued on, pretending not to hear Keith groan, “something about the training room A.I not responding to voice commands or whatever. I wasn’t really listening, but he I think he had said something about the main control panel being up in the observation deck. But this is basically what links it all together.”

“Links _what_ together?” Keith said slowly, chewing his words out like he was talking to a kid. Lance choked on a laugh, shaking his head at Keith’s impatient curiosity. “Calm down, hun. I’ll just…. Show you…?” Lance hummed out the last words in a confused tone, eyebrows knit together.

“What?” Keith asked with a tilt of his head. Lance hummed out something under his breath eyes darting back and forth. “I, uh… can’t remember which crystal is the right one,” he admitted with an embarrassed laugh, leaning away to rub the back of his neck. “I…. uuhhhhh.”

Keith sighed, pinches the bridge of his nose. “Lance, you’re killing me here,” He mumbled out, “what are you even trying to--”

“Let’s try this one!” Lance exclaimed suddenly, flicking a blueish crystal. He yelped at a static shock running up his arm, shaking his hand and cradling it against his chest. Keith’s eyes were wide, Lance’s name on the tip of his tongue, silenced when everything suddenly went dark.

“W-woah!” Lance gulped out, his eyes wide at the sudden darkness, the only source of light the crystals. “Whoops,” he chuckled, looking over at Keith who had his eyes narrowed. “That wasn’t intentional.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Keith said as Lance put the crystal back in it’s place, the lights running through the floor and the walls and the ceiling flickering back on with a few blueish sparks. He glanced down at the hand curled against Lance’s chest, keeping himself from reaching out to him. “So,” he said awkwardly, “how much did you fuck up your hand?” _Good job_ , Keith mentally cursed at himself. _You can’t even ask him if he’s alright. Way to go, idiot._

“Oh?” Lance hummed, looking down at his hand like he had forgotten about it entirely. He lifted his hand up to his face, inspecting it as he clenched and unclenched his fist. “I dunno, it feels kinda tingly, but I don’t think we’ll need to chop it off.” He looked over at Keith with a full, bright grin, the kind that made Keith’s thoughts derail and his face heat up.

Keith’s teeth dug into his lip as he sat down on the ground, his back to the wall as he stared at nothing so that Lance wouldn’t see his reddened face. “I swear, Lance, if you end up messing up the oxygen, I’m tossing you out of here.”

“Sucks for you, because I’m pretty sure suffocation would kill me before your grubby fingerless gloves could even touch me.”

Keith huffed, lifting his hands to stare down at them with a frown. “Grubby? The fuck is that supposed to mean?” He said, eyes narrowing. He looked over at Lance just after he flicked yet another crystal, lumping back slightly and then glancing all around, although the room seemed to stay the same. “What is with you attacking my gloves, anyways?” Keith continued on, not noticing the way Lance’s eyes widened, or how his hair was standing on end-- literally.

“Because you make it so easy, duh,” Lance spat out quickly, raising a hand to silence Keith before he could bite back. “But your questionable fashion sense isn’t important right now. I actually got the right crystal this time.”

“Are you so sure?” Keith questioned, glancing around the room as if to emphasize his words. Everything looked the same; the lights weren’t flickering, Keith could still breath, which was good. “I think you hit some faulty wiring,” Keith hummed, not paying any attention to Lance’s smirk as he started to stand up, pushing off of the wall--

Keith gasped, blinking rapidly when he felt himself float up into the air, moving towards the middle of the room at the light push. His heart in his throat as he posited around in mid air, looking down at the ground with wide eyes. He felt weightless, empty, like his muscles were made of stardust and his bones were full of helium. His hair was moving like he was underwater, crawling up his neck and around his face. Memories of when he had been ejected into space for a short moment, floating through nothing, came to mind as he tumbled and turned in midair.

Naturally, he started to panic.

“L-Lance!” Keith called out, a gaps in his voice as he started to flail around, turning and tumbling as he floated away like a balloon. At the sound of Lance’s snickering, Keith looked back at him with wide eyes. “The gravity? Really?”

Lance hummed, slamming the small compartment shut, the latch blending seamlessly into the wall. Lance carefully turned around, his hands flat against cold metal as he looked at Keith, who was clutching his knees to his chest like that would stop him from sliding away. Lance couldn’t help but laugh again at the way his hair puffed out, framing his wide eyes as they almost frantically glanced all around.

“Isn’t this cool?” Lance exclaimed a little to excitedly, making sure to stay close to the wall. “Who needs gravity when you can just hover everywhere like you’re flying?”

“I do,” Keith huffed, “I need gravity. More than anything, I’ve decided.” He bit into his bottom lip, looking at the ground like there was nowhere else he would rather be. “How am I supposed to get down?”

“You don’t!” With that, Keith looked over at Lacne like he was mad, blinking and narrowing his eyes. Lance grinned at him before moving around to lay his feet flat against the wall. “You wait right there, I’m comin’ up to meet you!” With that, he crouched down, sticking out his tongue, then pushing off of the wall with everything he had, heading straight for Keith.

He wasn’t paying attention to Lance at all, instead staring up at the ceiling that he was slowly creeping towards. “Wait,” Keith huffed, cursing his hair as he tried to brush it out of his face, reaching up towards the ceiling. “Hold up, I think I can… push myself back down. Don’t--”

The wind was knocked out of Keith, his body jerking through the air at the sudden weight collided with him. An elbow was jabbing into his back, Lance knocking his head against Keith’s shoulder harshly. “Aw, fuck!” Lance cursed loudly managing to latch onto Keith with one hand, rubbing his sore forehead with the other. That’s definitely going to bruise…

Keith coughed, gasping in a breath as he tried to untangle his legs from Lance’s, his hair obscuring his vision. “D-dammit, Lance,” he ground out, grabbing onto the hand on his shoulder. “Oh my god, you pushed me away from the ceiling. Nice going, hotshot.”

“Ppsh,” Lance brushed it off, pulling an arm around Keith’s shoulders, entangling their legs again before he could push him away too much. At that point, Keith was already blushing up to his ears. “Whatever you say, pretty boy. Just sit back and enjoy the weightlessness. Beside, what’s the point of zero G’s if you’re just gonna try to get back to the grou--”

“W-wait,” Keith huffed, out, holding his arms in front of him. he stared at the wall with wide eyes, unable to kick away and get them back into the open air, thanks to Lance. He couldn’t do anything but choke out a warning. “We’re going to slam right into--”

Keith smacked right into a metal wall, his shoulder colliding and sending a stab of pain up his arm. Lance jerked, his head hitting Keith’s back with a solid thunk, making Keith cough and gasp as the bounced right off.

“This,” Keith grumbled as he tried to turn around, holding onto Lance with his good arm as he wearily looked all around them with wide eyes. “Is easily one of your stupidest ideas.”

“Thanks to your attitude, it sure is,” Lance pouted, two distinct red marks on his forehead, one of them already starting to go purple. He grumbled something under his breath, fully aware of how Keith was now clinging onto him like he was his lifeline. With a flustered gulp, Lance smoothed a hand over the curve of his back, Keith curling his fingers around Lance’s shirt.

“I-I mean,” Lance tried to say, distracted by how Keith kept looking up at him, purplish eyes blinking from behind jet black bangs. “It would be… more fun if you stopped complaining about it.”

“It’d be more fun if you hadn’t shoved me into the ceiling,” Keith retaliated. He bit into his lip, -- _now, that’s just not fair,_ Lance thought to himself-- looking at the wall they had drifted so far away from with a frown. He could see the door, still locked shut firmly, and Lance’s jacket and bayard drifting a few feet off of the ground, as if they were suspended in water.

“Well, maybe you just need to relax,” Lance said with a hum, running a hand through his hair as he grinned down at Keith, his back towards the roof. “So just… lean back and enjoy the weightlessness. It’s…. Nice, right?” Lance didn’t know why he was feeling so sheepish all of the sudden, his lips a thin line. Maybe it was the way Keith looked at him from behind his hair, or the fingers clutching the fabric of his shirt, or the slim legs intertwined with his, or the way the lighting seemed to bounce off of Keith’s skin like he was made of glass.

Whatever it was, it made Lance want to do something stupid.

“I don’t know,” Keith said with a sigh, looking down at the floor they were drifting a few feet above of nervously. He didn’t seem to notice the hand overing by his face hesitantly, fingers nearly brushing his skin. “I think I’d much rather be on the ground right now,” Keith whipped his head around hair swirling as he he looked back up at Lance. He kept frowning, trying to push his air out of his face, cursing how he hadn’t thought to bring an elastic. Lance thought his heart was going to erupt when Keith pinned his hair back with his hand, looking at him with a slight pout.

“I’m sick of feeling like a balloon,” He said with a sigh, “can you turn the gravity back on?”

Lance’s whole demeanor changed at that simple question, his body tensing slightly at the realization. Keith narrowed his eyes accusingly at the way his eyes widened, his lips pinched as his shoulders were dragged up to his ears.

“Oh my god,” Keith groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You don’t know how, do you?”

“Hey, I do!” Lance huffed defensively, hesitating when stared at him doubtfully. “... I mean, I do know how, I think. I just… can’t?”

“You can’t?” Keith scoffed, shaking his head back and forth. He couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that Lance had them both stuck their, suspending in the air like puppets, for… well, forever, probably. “You really have no way of getting us back onto the ground?”

“Nope,” Lance said calmly, popping the ‘P’, “no way. Well, it’s possible, but I’d have to somehow get back to there.” He gestured back to the wall, where his jacket and bayard were suspended. He continued on nonchalantly, not seeming to be affected by Kieth’s glare. “Like, there’s technically two ways; the compartment on the ground over there, or from the observation deck. I don’t know how that one works, so please don’t ask.”

Keith huffed, shaking his head as a response to Lance’s sorry, guilty grin. “And, what? We’re just going to wait here until someone finds us?”

“I guess, yeah. No biggie.”

“And you’re _fine_ with that?”

Lance smirked at him, blue eyes shining. “I mean, yeah. If we were stuck here forever, I would be more than okay with it,” He said, his voice low. Keith’s face heated up, burning red like there was fire under his skin as Lance inched forward just a touch. It felt like his mouth was full of cotton, every angry word he was going to say lost.

“What about you?” Lance asked with a hum; Keith could feel it rumble from his chest. Blinking, he realized just how close they were-- his hands, flat against Lance’s broad chest, was the almost the only barrier between them. Lance’s foot was hooked behind his ankle, Keith’s legs fit perfectly between his.

Keith was biting into his heart so hard that he was afraid he would pierce the skin, his mind running rampant with something he couldn’t place. _Too much_ , his instincts hissed in his ear. _He’s everywhere, Lance is everywhere. Too much, it’s_ too much _. Push, run, get back--_

 _“Hey guys_ ,” the intercom buzzed to life, Hunk’s humming, distracted voice cutting through the silence. “ _Just came to check up on you quickly, make sure Keith hasn’t, like, pulled a knife on you or somethi-- what the heck?”_

Keith instantly leaned back as soon as Hunk finally noticed them, suspended in mid-air like they were hanging by thin strings. Keith pulled his hands to his chest, clenching them into fists as Lance detangled his hand from Keith’s hair, -- _when had that gotten there_?-- his a blush creeping up his neck and to the tips of his ears.

“Uuhh,” Keith hummed between clenched teeth, looking over to the two-way mirror that Hunk was no doubt staring at them through, his mouth hanging open and his hands hovering by his face with worry. Not that Keith could see him, no-- all he could see was him and Lance, his hair a halo around his head and his whole body so, so close to Lance, it made his eyes widen and something like panic rear it’s ugly head between his lungs.

“Oh, heyya, Hunk,” Lance said with a nervous laugh, pulling away from Keith to wiggle his fingers at the mirror in a half-assed wave. “How were the hologram projectors? Is the control room back in business?”

“ _We managed to fix it up, yeah, but that’s not important_ ,” Hunk said quickly, his voice sounding flabbergasted, shocked, disbelieving, maybe disappointed, and a number of other things that Keith couldn’t put a name to. “ _But-- what did I tell you, Lance! How many times have we been over this! You shouldn’t be messing with the training room’s controls_!”

“I told you so,” Keith muttered, looking at Lance with his arms crossed and a single eyebrow raised. Lance narrowed his eyes at the cocky look on his face, about to whip out some equally snarky comeback, only be interrupted by Hunk’s annoyed sigh.

“ _And Keith, I trusted you_!” Hunk bellowed dramatically. Keith’s shoulders dropped, his eyes wide as he stared at himself in the mirror. He could see the shity grin on Lance’s face all too perfectly. “Wha-- Hunk!” Keith huffed, “what did I do?”

“ _Push-ups_!” Hunk exclaimed right back at him, “ _you said you’d make Lance do push-ups if he did anything weird! And here you guys are, human balloons, and Lance still isn’t doing push-ups!”_

“In his defense,” Lance interjected. Not because he wasn’t enjoying Keith getting scolded, no, mostly because, even if he was on steady ground, there was no way he would do push-ups just because Keith told him to. “There’s not really anything I can do push-ups against, y’know? No ground. Zero gravity is very empty and lonely.”

“ _Doesn’t look like it…_ ” Hunk muttered, sounding like he had leaned away from the mic so that they wouldn’t have heard him. But they did, Keith’s face as red as his Lion as he instantly hid his face behind his hands as Lance mumbled out incoherent sentences, just as embarrassed as Keith was.

“H-how about,” Lance finally gulped out, “you get us down from here, pump this room full of gravity or something, and I’ll do those stupid push-ups?”

“... _I could just tell Shiro, y’know_ ,” Hunk hummed, Lance’s grin instantly dropping, “ _he could probably come up with a better punishment for the both of you.”_

Lance gasped, twisting his body around, accidentally elbowing Keith in the ribs, who gasped and tried to shove him away. Instead, it just sent them both rolling through the air, Keith’s hair annoyingly blocking his vision for the hundredth time that day. _I swear to god_ , he thought, grumbling as he pinned his bangs back with one hand. _I’m chopping all of this off as soon as I get down from here._

“Hunk, please,” Lance whined, his hands clasped together as he stared at the observation deck, now upside down. “ _Please_ , think about what could happen to me if you tell Shiro. I only got out of cryo pod cleaning duties a few days ago.”

“ _Well_ …”

“Think about my busted up cuticles. Think about the broken nails I had to endure for half a month.”

“ _Fine_ ,” Hunk gave in with a sigh, Lance’s tense shoulders relaxing. “ _I won’t mention this to anyone, as long as you fix what you did after I override the gravity regulator.”_

“Oh, Hunk,” Lance practically sobbed, unaware of Keith rolling his eyes as the spun around once more. “You’re the bestest friend an awesome guy such as I could ever have. You’re this universe’s saving grace, the moon to my stars, the earth to my ocea--”

Their eyes widened in sync at the sound of a sort of electric shock echoing out from the observation deck, just giving the both of them enough time to stare at each other before the sudden surge of gravity in the room pulled them towards the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Keith felt his back connect with the hard, cold ground. Sparks of pain shot throughout his body, from the back of his head, his ribs, his legs. A knee was digging into his thigh, an elbow lodged in his gut, pulling the air from his lungs. Hs eyes snapped shut when Lance’s forehead connected with his.

Keith coughed, gasping for breath as he gritted his teeth through the sharp pain. He gave himself a moment to steel himself over. “A-ah, _fuck_ ,” He hissed under his breath, bringing a hand up to rub the already forming bump on his head.

There was a pained groan from above him, making Keith frown. Blinking his eyes, he noticed the heavy weight pinning his body to the floor-- his eyes widening instantly when he saw Lance’s face so close to his.

Keith’s heart was working overtime in his chest, his whole body feeling like it was on fire. Wherever Lance touched him --his knees on either side of his legs as he moved, where their chests were pressed together, Keith’s arms trapped beneath his weight-- seemed to burn.

“ _Wow_ , that’s gonna hurt like a bitch in the morning,” Lance laughed with a gasp as he pulled himself off of Keith, placing his hands on either side of Keith’s head. He frowned at the feeling of soft hair brushing against his fingers, shaking his head back and forth as he spoke. “You could have warned us… H…” Lance blinked, opening his eyes as his voice was yanked out of his lungs.

“O-oh,” Keith gulped, staring up at Lance with flustered, wide, purple eyes. His lips were pressed into a thin, nervous line, his heart feeling like it was trying to burst out of his chest, pounding against his ribs.

“ _Oh my gosh_.” Lance barely heard Hunk’s worried gasp, too busy staring back down at Keith, his body frozen. “ _I-I’m so sorry guys, I didn’t-- are you two alright?”_

“I…” Lance’s words dragged on, his eyes searching Keith’s every feature; his eyes, his cheek bones, his nose, his lips. A hesitant reached up, fingers shaking as he threaded them through Keith’s hair. Keith felt like his bones were made of stone-- unmoving. “I think…” Lance said, “I think I’m alright.”

“ _Oh jeez, oh jeez-- I’ll be down in a second. I’m so, so sorry I… okay_ ,” The intercom went dead silent with a soft click, Lance’s breathing --and his own-- now the only thing Keith could hear through the blood pounding in his ears.

“...Lance?” he said softly, a quiet question. It sounded like a whisper against the booming thoughts storming through his mind. He didn’t know why it was so different now, the close proximity --maybe it was because of how he was cornered, trapped between the person that always clouded his mind, the only person in the universe he had ever confided in, told his fears to, cried in front of, and a solid metal floor that was the only thing keeping him from getting sucked into space.

He imagined himself peeling back the metal, ripping it open, and disappearing into the stars.

 _Run_ , his nerves sang, his fingers aching to push away from him, his legs burned to move, to kick. He felt trapped, cornered, pressured. _Get away, get up. move, go! It’s too much. Too much--_

“What are you doing?” Keith whispered out, biting down on his rising panic. It felt like his words filled up the room. Lance’s eyes followed every movement, from the way his eyes glanced around almost frantically, to how his teeth tugged on his bottom lip.

“I... “ Lance’s voice was nearly silent, but it filled the space between them perfectly, pressing Keith into the floor. His hand was on Keith’s face, his chin, fingers brushing gently burning paths on his skin. “I don’t know, really.”

Move, Keith’s thoughts were screaming. His panic was rising in his throat, but he didn’t move, even when Lance inched forward, until all he could see was blue eyes and all he could feel was his warm breath. “I guess I’m… taking a page out of your book and…” he was close, _so close so close_ \-- “just… rolling with this.”

“L-Lance--”

Keith’s movements were a blur, fogged by his instincts kicking in and taking control. He didn’t see what happened, could only feel Lance’s weight against his hands as he shoved him away and off of him.

Keith pushed himself partially off of the ground, freezing in his place when he realized what he had done. Lance had been pushed onto his back with a gasp, his head connecting with the ground with a dull thunk, his shirt disheveled.

He didn’t give himself time to recover, to think or do anything else besides pull himself onto his knees, looking down at Keith’s shocked face with wide eyes.

 _Oh god_ , Keith thought, his face pale as he gulped. _Oh god, what have I done? I pushed him away I-I panicked, I freaked out. Why did I freak out? Because he was going to kiss me? What’s_ wrong _with me?_

“Keith…” Lance’s hushed, quiet voice pulled Keith out of his angry, self directed thoughts. He blinked, his heart feeling like it was spilling over when he saw the emotions clouding Lance’s eyes; from confusion, to realization, to doubt, ending at guilt. “Keith… I--”

He was on his feet before Lance could choke out another word, poots skidding against the ground in his hurry. Keith gasped, stopping to slam his hand on the padlock by the door, letting it slide open just a bit before he slipped through.

He didn’t stop when he ran past a confused Hunk, making him drop the first-aid kit in his hands. He didn’t stop when he heard Lance called out his name, his voice worried, concerned, frantic.

His words chased him as he ran.

* * *

To Keith, when he would think about it too much, the Castle felt like a graveyard.

The Castle of Lions had been left empty for ten thousand years, no way for anyone or anything to enter. So it made sense that, on the brink of becoming extinct, the Alteans that had once populated the castle didn’t have the time to pack their things, clean up as they left, and then face their demise.

At first, there had been signs of the Alteans that had lived there before them; the beds in the millions of spare rooms disheveled, with tangled sheets and blankets; the chairs in the dining hall knocked over and pushed around like whoever had once been eating there had been in a hurry; clothes tucked away in closets, shirts spread out on beds like the person living there before hadn’t been able to decide what to wear to the end of their lives. Keith had even found a doll, matted hair and worn stitching, tucked in the corner of his closet underneath the former Red Paladin’s boots.

Sometimes, Keith wondered if the people who had been torn from their lives were still there.

Now, maybe it was just Keith’s weird obsession with the paranormal getting to him, but he never really found himself feeling alone when he would walk down empty halls. He liked to think that, without anyone seeing, there were still Alteans treading through the Castle, going about their daily lives like nothing had ever happened.

But, as Keith sat in the empty room that had once stored King Alfor’s memories, he felt alone.

There was an echoing silence ringing through the barely lit room, bouncing off of the rounded walls and getting stuck in midair. Keith sat with his back to the wall and his knees pulled up to his chest, his chin digging into his knee as he stared at nothing.

His chest was empty, his bones felt hollow. He felt nothing but an ache reverting throughout his whole body, imbedded in his muscles and under his skin. One thought stood out in his mind, surrounding by nothing but static.

_What’s wrong with me?_

Keith liked Lance-- more than just ‘liked’ him. That much was undeniable. He always felt content around him, even in tense situations, or when something stupid he had said made Keith want to pull his hair out. He was weak not just to Lance’s sometimes smooth flirting, but also his cheesy pick-up lines, the curve of his smile, the way his eyes glimmered when he was trying to rile Keith up.

Keith liked Lance. So then why had he felt so afraid, so panicked when he had the chance to act on how he felt?

Lance had been willing, had even started it, but then why was Keith the one that wasn’t so willing? Why had he hesitated? Why had he ran?

Keith felt that, deep down, buried beneath it all, he knew the answer.

He blinked, nearly jumping out of his skin when he heard the familiar airy woosh of the door sliding open. Seeing a shadow framed by pale light stretch across the floor, Keith craned his neck with a frown, more than ready to tell whoever it was that he was in no mood for talking-- only to bite his tongue and instead turn to glare at the floor.

“What do you want?” Keith bit out, although his tone didn’t sound as harsh and angry as he had wanted. He sounded… lost.

Shiro must have heard it in his voice, too, if his low sigh was anything to go by. The door slid shut behind Shiro, heavy footsteps leading from the door to the boy crouched by the far wall, trying to hide his face behind his arms.

“I just want to talk,” Shiro hummed, his tone soft and cool, like he was talking to a spooked animal. Keith didn't reply, didn’t say a word or even look in his direction as Shiro crouched down beside him. He leaned back against the wall with a content hum, letting the silence drag on for another second before talking.

“Allura told me you didn’t seem to be doing so well,” he said simply. Keith raised an eyebrow, looking at Shiro out of the corner of his eye. “How’d she know?” He asked, obviously sounding more than curious.

“Well, she saw you bolt down the hall past the control room, apparently,” Shiro looked up at the ceiling, a soft grin on his face. “Figured she wouldn’t be the best at having a heart-to-heart with you, so she talked to me.”

“If you’re looking for a heart-to-heart talk, you’re in the wrong place,” Keith said glumly. They both knew he was wrong, of course. No one could get Keith talking like Shiro could. All he had to do was pick and jab a bit more, and his words would flow through him like he’s a broken dam.

“C’mon, Keith,” Shiro nudged him with his shoulder, “tell me, what’s bothering you?” He didn’t say a word, his eyes narrowing as he stared down at the floor in the center of the room, nails digging crescents into his arms.

“It must be pretty big,” Shiro continued on, seemingly perfectly content talking for two. “Considering how even the mice could hear you sprinting down the halls. Lance was actually making a lot of racket too, running after you and yelling your name like mad.”

“Lance…” Keith dragged out his name, turning to look at Shiro, “was looking for me?” Shiro was nodding his head, tracing patterns into the floor with his metal hand to keep himself somewhat preoccupied while he talked. “Oh yeah, sure was,” He said, “I mean, he was looking everywhere for you. Looked really frantic, too. Hunk practically had to drag him to bed. With how long you’ve been hiding and he had been searching, I’m surprised he never found you.”

A pit of guilt set itself in the bottom of Keith’s stomach, making him feel sick and nauseous. He groaned out, holding his head in his hands. “Ah, fuck,” he cursed angrily, “I messed up.”

There was a pause of silence as if Shiro was expecting him to continue on with that thought. “What happened between you two?” He said when the silence became too heavy, “you and Lance have been doing really well lately, getting along great in and out of battle. Well, the bickering hasn’t stopped, I didn’t think it would. But… something else started, huh?”

“Oh my god,” Keith whispered out, his face glowing red at Shiro’s suggestive tone, knowing exactly what he was implying. “Oh my god, you’re-- you’re just like Pidge.”

“If you mean that Pidge also noticed you and Lance flirting, then we’re not the only ones,” Shiro said simply, like he was talking about the weather instead of being mosey about Keith and Lance’s nonexistent relationship. “Even Coran has been asking me about you two.”

“What has he-- nevermind, nope. I don’t want to know,” Keith cut himself off, shaking one hand and holding the other over his red face as Shiro laughed at him, enjoying his embarrassment way too much.

There was more silence, the only sound Shiro thrumming metal fingers against the floor, unable to ever sit completely still. Keith basked in it, focusing on the repetitive clickclickclickclick until Shiro spoke up again, his tone less teasing and more concerned, brotherly than before.

“This is about that, isn’t it?” Shiro asked, his words sounding so much louder to Keith than they actually were, “the flirting, I mean.” He bit into his lip, scowling down at the ground as he hunched his shoulders.

“I…” Keith sucked in a breath, picking this fingerless gloves. “I messed up, I think.” he waited for Shiro to say something, to ask what he meant or what he was talking about. But Shiro didn’t say a word, his gaze unwavering, waiting for Keith to say what was on his mind.

“It… yes, it has to do with Lance,” he said with a gulp, running his fingers over his mouth, his jaw, his cheek. His face was burning. “And… and the flirting, and whatever’s going on between us… I think I fucked all that up, Shiro.”

“What makes you think that?” Shiro asked simply, making Keith bite his lip, his shoulders sagging. “Well, we… we were in the training room,” he gulped, “just Lance and me. We were close, really close and… I panicked, I guess? I don’t know, I just… felt afraid, overwhelmed, and I pushed him away. God, I pushed him away and then I just ran--”

“Hey, hey,” Shiro hummed sternly as Keith started to hold his head in his hands, his fingers harshly tangling in his hair. Shiro leaned towards him to place a comforting hand on Keith’s shoulder, his head snapping up to look at the concern carved into Shiro’s features. “Don’t beat yourself up over it, Keith. I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“It probably is, though,” Keith said quickly, stubborning contradicting what Shiro had said. He looked away to stare down at his feet, resting his chin on his knee with a sigh. “I… I’m not going to lie. I like Lance, okay? I like him, a lot. So much and I just-- why did I do that? Why did I push him away if I like him?”

“I think…” Shiro said slowly, his tone calm, calculated, “that you know the answer to that.” Keith blinked, looking over at the warm smirk on Shiro’s face with a frown.

He was right, he was always right. Keith didn’t know how, --he could never figure it out-- but Shiro always seemed to know what was going on in his head and what he was feeling even when he was still struggling to sort it out. Maybe it was because Shiro was just so good at reading people, or maybe it was their sort of brotherly bond. Either way, Keith knew it was pointless to avoid talking about it. So, with a shaking breath, he bit into his lip, forcing his words out of his throat.

“I’m afraid.”

Shiro raised his eyebrows, obviously taken back by what he said, by the weak, almost angry tone of his voice. But he didn’t respond, didn’t get the chance to. Everything that had been stuck in Keith’s head for so long was bursting free.

“I’m… afraid of getting too close to Lance. I’m afraid of what could happen to him, to me, to us if something goes wrong, if I hurt him or if our relationship just… doesn’t work out. I’m afraid that maybe he won’t feel the same as I do, or that we’ll be moving at different paces, that maybe I won’t be able to keep up with him. I’m afraid that I’ll mess it all up, that Lance will end up avoiding me or…” Keith dragged in a desperately needed breath, his voice quivering slightly. He dug his nails into his skin, using the pain to keep himself grounded. “I’m afraid that this… all of this will come crashing down. That Hunk won’t be able to look at me the same, or that Pidge will think of me differently, or-- o-or…”

Keith’s eyes were burning, his irrational fears spilling over, bubbling out of his throat. He sucked in a ragged breath as he pressed the heel of his hands into his eyes, trying to push back the tears welling up uncontrollably. He hated it, he hated the way his vision was blurred, his chest swelled. He hated how weak he felt, how he had let his emotions get the best of him.

“I-I’m sorry, I don’t…” Keith tried to choke out. Shiro just hushed him, shaking his head as he moved closer to loop an arm around Keith’s shoulders. “No, don’t say sorry. It’s fine, just let it out,” Shiro cooed, his voice soothing but concerned, worried, surprised, like he hadn’t expected Keith to be so insecure deep down. “Keith, you can’t really think that, can you? You know Hunk and Pidge wouldn’t think of you any differently if you and Lance don’t work out.”

“I just…” Keith sighed out, biting the inside of his cheek, “before this, before we got pulled into space and this whole ‘Voltron’ thing, I had… I had nothing else. You were gone, and I was alone. I’m afraid to lose everything we have here just because I couldn’t keep up with Lance romantically.”

“Okay, no,” Shiro said suddenly, holding up a hand to silence Keith, “I’m going to stop you right there. I’ve heard enough.” Keith frowned at him, at the stubborn set of his jaw. “Shiro, wha--”

“Keith,” he interrupted again, ignoring Keith’s annoyed huff. The metal hand on his shoulder gripped him sternly. “You know that we’re a family now, right? We’re more than just a team.”

“Yeah, I,” Keith sighed, shrugging his hand off of his shoulder, “I know that, Shiro. That’s why--”

“Then you know that,” He cut him off, his eyebrows drawn together, “no matter what happens, we’ll still be a team, a family. Even if something happens between you and Lance, Hunk will still be your friend. He’ll still cook you something when you’re not feeling well or offer to fix up your Lion’s messed navigational system. Pidge will still bug the hell out of you and check up on you late at night because they know you can’t sleep, either. Hell, you could grow ears and turn purple and you’d still be the Red Paladin of Voltron. _Nothing_ , no matter _what_ it is, will change that.”

Keith looked at Shiro for a moment, stared at the sincerity in his eyes before looking away. The hole in his chest didn’t feel as vast, Shiro’s comforting words seeming to fill the void slightly. That didn’t mean he believed him completely, though. “You can’t know that,” he whispered out, his words airy. “You can’t tell me that… that Lance won’t look at me differently, Shiro, when you don’t know if he would or not.”

Shiro breathed out slowly, resting back beside Keith so that they were shoulder to shoulder, the cold chill of his metal arm seeping onto Keith’s skin through his jacket. “Tell me,” He said with a hum, “you know Lance better than anyone else, don’t you?”

“No,” Keith said with a scoff, as if the idea itself was ridiculous. He rolled his eyes, thoughts of Lance and Hunk talking to each other over dinner, nudging each other during training, almost always by each others’ side. “I’m pretty sure that falls on Hunk, not me.”

“Uh, okay,” Shiro sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “I may have worded that wrong… I meant to say, you know Lance in a different way than anyone else. He argues with you like no one else, gets you riled up and pushes all your buttons. But that’s not it, no. You don’t even know the half of it, you don’t see the way he looks at you like all of us do, or hear how he talks about you when you’re not in the room.”

Keith looked at him from behind his bangs, trying to wrap his mind around what Shiro was saying, mulling over every single word he said. He felt like he had when he was with Lance, when they had been clinging to each other in the air; he felt weightless. “so, “ Keith said slowly, unsure, “you’re saying that Lance…”

Shiro’s smirk was sly, but understanding as he laughed lowly. “Let’s just say, your guys’ relationship is nothing like Hunk and Lance’s.” He sucked in a breath, titling his head to the side as he rubbed the back of his neck. “And… about what you said before, about… keeping up with Lance…”

“It’s true,” Keith said simply, his tone slightly somber, “I have no experience with… this. I really, really don’t know what I’m doing, unlike Lance.”

“No, you’re right,” Shiro said with a nod, “but that’s not the point of a relationship, Keith. The people in it aren’t always going to be on equal ground with that, but that’s okay. but, Keith, you know Lance wouldn’t make you do anything you're uncomfortable with. He’d slow down to your pace, but you have to say that.”

Shiro’s gaze was strong, stern as he looked at Keith out of the corner or his eye, who was chewing on his lip, staring at the ground with his eyebrows knit together in thought. Shiro threaded his fingers together, “you’ve got to talk to him,” Shiro continued, “or your guys’ relationship won’t get anywhere.”

Keith nodded his head softly, his mind feeling as clear as it had all day. Blinking, he huffed and smirked as he turned to look at Shiro. “You know,” He hummed, “you’re kind of a hypocrite.” Shiros eyes widened, obviously confused and taken back. “K-Keith, what are you talking about?”

“Well, you’re sitting here giving me relationship advice that you’re not even acting on!” Keith huffed, trying his best to sound offended as he jabbed Shiro in the side with his elbow. “C’mon, why don’t you talk your own advice and go talk to Allura already!”

Shiro’s face was red, his hands held up in mock surrender as he inched away from Keith with an awkward laugh. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, trying to sound as sincere as he could, which was hard since he couldn’t seem to look Keith in the eyes. “And i thought my advice was pretty good.”

“Meh,” Keith hummed with a sarcastic shrug, hearing Shiro scoff at him, “it was… okay, sure, but that’s not important right now.” Without another word, Keith jumped to his feet, gesturing for him to take his hand. “Let’s make a deal,” He said as he pulled Shiro to his feet, “if you go talk to Allura, I’ll go talk it out with Lance. Deal?”

“Uh, wait, wait,” Shiro ran his hand through his hair, eyebrows raised. “Not-- not right now. It’s midnight--”

“Time is meaningless in space.”

“--everyone is asleep but us! We can’t just… go barge into their rooms. That’s rude.” Keith clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, shaking his head at Shiro. “You’re just stalling.”

“N-no,” Shiro responded, crossing his arms. “I’m just thinking logically. At least sleep on this and talk to Lance in the morning, Keith. You know he can’t function without getting some sleep.”

“Well, he’s going to be grumpy in the morning, then,” Keith said, ignoring Shiro’s protest as he made his way to the door. Smoothing his fingers over the padlock, the door slid open, revealing the dark, empty hall. He whipped his head around to look at Shiro. “I can’t just sleep on this. It’ll eat me alive all night.”

“okay , fine” Shiro said with a sigh, his hands on his hips. “But I’m not dealing with his grumpy ass in the morning. That falls on you.” Keith just rolled his eyes with a nod, walking out of the simulation room with Shiro right behind him.

He went to walk down the hall, pausing when he noticed Shiro walking in the opposite direction, his shoulders up to his ears. Keith grinned when he noticed he was walking towards Allura’s room. Shiro twisted around when he heard Keith yell after him; “and I’m not dealing with Allura’s grumpiness in the morning, either!”

“J-just-- mind your business, Keith!”

* * *

 Keith’s feet were rooted to the spot right in front of Lance’s door.

His head felt heavy on his shoulders, like his thoughts were weighing down on his being. His fingers, feeling numb and froze, twitched by his side, eager to knock on the door.

In the simulation roomwith Shiro sitting right beside him, the thought of barging into Lance’s room, shaking him awake if he needed to, and telling Lance just how much he meant to him didn’t seem like it was impossible, unreachable. But at that moment in time, with nothing but a metal door between Keith and Lance, he felt like he had ran a marathon to get there, like he would have to travel miles and miles of unexplored desert to get to him.

Sucking in a shaky breath, he exhaled, trying to calm down his beating heart. Before he could overthink it, --anymore than he already had-- he lifted his shaking hand up, knocking on the door quickly once, twice, three times.

There was a beat of painful, agonizing silence that seemed to stretch on and on, even if only a few seconds had past. Keith could hear the sound of shuffling, a sigh, and then a muffled ‘come in.’

He hesitated before carefully touching the padlock, the door sliding open. Keith peered into Lance’s room, the darkness being chased away from a blue light emitting from a small glowing lamp on the desk by the bed against the wall. Pale light outlined Lance’s body.

Lance was sitting on the edge of his bed, wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants. He was hunched over, his head in his hands. Maybe it was the curve of his back, or the way he didn’t even glance up to see who was standing in the doorway to his room, but Keith got the feeling that he had been sitting like that for a long, long time.

Keith bit into his lip, not saying a word as he took a hesitant step into the room. He gripped his arm with clawed fingers, the door sliding shut almost silently behind him. Lance sighed, ruffling a hand through his hair. “What do you want? I was trying to sleep,” He lied, not tearing his eyes away from his bare feet.

Keith breathed in deeply, mentally cursing himself. Say it, he thought bitterly. You’re here now, so just say it. Say something.

“We need to talk,” Keith said quickly. Lance’s necked snapped back as soon as he heard the familiar voice, his eyes wide when he realized that it wasn’t Hunk or Pidge or Shiro or even Coran standing in his room. His heart felt too heavy in his chest when he saw that it was Keith, staring down at him firmly.

“O-oh,” Lance gulped. His mouth felt dry, his words catching on his sandpapery throat. Keith wasn’t any better, feeling like his blood was oil, his skeleton a stiff machine. He wanted to speak, to say something that would get that panicked, guilty look out of Lance’s eyes, but he couldn’t find the right words.

Lance beat him to it, his knuckles white as he clutched the edge of his bed. “Keith,” Lance breathed out, his voice sounding strained. “Keith, oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

“Wait,” Keith blinked at him, shocked. “N-no, don’t… don’t apologize. It was… it was my fault. I--”

“How could it be your--” 

“L-let me finish,” Keith interrupted, shoulders up to his ears and fists clenched. Lance clamped his mouth shut instantly, looking at Keith with a frown. “Just… let me speak. Please.” he let out a sigh rolling his tense shoulders. His face already felt like it was on fire even though he had barely said anything yet. He couldn’t help it when Lance was looking at him expectantly like that.

“I… I need to explain myself,” He said with a gulp, his hands behind his back. Lance was shaking his head. “No, Keith, you really don’t--”

“Jesus--” Keith cursed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he growled. “Can you maybe stop talking for like a few minutes? Please?” For once, Lance seemed to take Keith seriously, bowing his head like he was in trouble. Keith bit into his lip, gulping.

“I’m…. afraid of you.”

“Wait,” Lance balked, his eyes widening before narrowing. Keith paled when he realized what he had said, holding up his hands. “Wait wait, _what_?” Lance sputtered.

“No, that’s not what I meant!” Keith huffed, shaking his head back and forth. Keith felt like his whole body was going to erupt into flames. “That’s… I’m not afraid of you. That’d be stupid. I meant….” He sighed, “I meant I’m afraid of…. Me and you, us, _this_.” He gestured with his hands, pointing back and forth between the two of them.

Lance’s eyes followed every small movement, a kind of realization dawning on him. “Oh…. _Oh_.”

“Y-yeah,” Keith responded simply. His hands itched to reach out, his feet moving before he could stop himself. Lance seemed to tense up, looking up at the shadow covering Keith’s eyes as he stood right beside him. “Can I…?”

“Yeah, sure,” Lance hummed, Keith instantly falling into place beside him. Keith pretended not to notice how Lance inched away, just staring down at the ground. “Lance… I’m afraid that…” He ran his tongue over his teeth, his eyes falling shut. “That I’ll mess up.” Keith’s words were spilling over like water.

“I have… no experience with any of this. I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know how to react when you flirt with me or when you lean closer or… anything, really. And, in the training room, I just… panicked. It felt like too much and I freaked out,” Keith had bitten so deep into the inside of his cheek it felt raw and torn under his tongue, the sharp, metallic tang of blood pushed to the back of his mind. “I… I just didn’t know what to do, what to say, so I ran. And I’m sorry for that--”

“Keith. Please stop talking.” Keith opened his eyes at that, frowning at the ground. “Uhm, no,” he scoffed as he looked over at Lance. “Dude, stop interrupting me--”

“Please,” Lance repeated, the soft, tender tone in his voice making Keith stop. Lance was shuffling around in his bed, his legs crossed in front of him as he faced Keith, his eyes searching. “Just… be quiet.” His voice was a low, airy whisper.

Keith stared back at him, his eyes following his every movement; the flick of his eyes, the way he brushed his hair back, the hand hesitantly reaching out towards him. “Can… can I?” Lance asked, his fingers feeling shaky.

“Can you what?” Keith whispered back, his face red as he watched Lance, not taking his gaze away from blue eyes as he felt fingers trace his jaw, careful but firm. His heart was beating twice as fast in his chest. His breath wavering, Lance’s eyes watched him as he leaned into his touch.

Gloved hands held onto both wrists, Keith’s face cradled in Lance’s grasp. Fingers curled in his black hair, sheets rustling as Lance leaned forward slightly, just barely an inch. “Are you afraid right now?” Lance asked, blue eyes running over Keith’s skin.

Keith exhaled, unable to form coherent sentences at the moment. His face was warm as he gently shook his head.

“What about…” Lance breathed out, his breath brushing against pale skin. “What about now?” Fingers tightened on his wrists, pulling him closer instead of pushing him away. Lance thought he was going to melt into the sheets when he heard Keith’s calm, content voice; “no, never.”

“Can I try something?” Lance asked hesitantly. He wanted to lean forward the whole way and capture Keith’s lips with his, but he wanted Keith to be comfortable even more.

“Like what?”

“Like… this,” Lance said, tracing Keith’s cheekbone with his lips. Keith let out a low gasp, a soft inhale, his hands running down Lance’s arms to grip at his shoulders. Lance’s eyes drifted shut as he peppered Keith’s face with kisses, tracing his forehead, the bridge of his nose, under his eyes. When he kissed the corner of Keith’s mouth, he pulled back instantly at the way Keith’s breathing seemed to quiver, his hold tightening just the slightest.

“S-sorry,” Lance said sheepishly, his shoulders hunched up to his ears as he took in Keith’s dazed, half lidded gaze. He shook his head at him, mumbling something Lance couldn’t quite hear before it was cut off by a yawn. “You probably want to head back to your room, huh?” Lance asked, not quite voicing his thoughts like he wanted to; _do you want to stay the night?_

“Yeah, I should get going...” Keith replied, but otherwise didn’t move an inch. “But not yet.” Lance felt flustered under his unwavering gaze, looking away as Keith hummed. Lance’s heart quivered at the rare, genuine smile spreading from ear to ear, his whole face lighting up. “You’re beautiful,” Keith said simply.

Lance sucked in a breath, his mind short circuiting as he whined, pulling his hands away to cover his flustered face. He could distantly hear Keith laughing at him and feel the hands in his shoulders trying to pull his hands away. “Aahh, _dude_!” Lance stammered, “you can’t just… _say_ stuff outta the blue like that! That’s not very ‘Keith’ of you.”

“Okay, uhm,” Keith hummed, tapping his chin. “Well, you’re only cute when you’re not being an annoying ass. How’s that sound?”

“Better,” Lance said, peeking at Keith from between his fingers, “although completely untrue. My cuteness is constant.”

“Yeah, obviously,” Keith scoffed, laughing when Lance hid behind his hands yet again.

there was a pause, a moment of calm and collected silence Lance’s room, the only sound their mixed breathing. Keith, for the first since the Kerberos mission took his only friend away, just couldn’t stop smiling.

“So,” He asked, tilting his head to the side. “What… what are we now?” Keith couldn’t figure out how Lance’s hands kept ending up in his hair, along his jaw, resting on his arm. But Keith couldn’t bring himself to do anything but lean into his touch.

“We’re whatever you want us to be,” Lance responded, his voice so sincere, so full of something Keith could finally put a name to. It made his chest swell, his head feel like it was full of air, like he was floating in space among the stars. Technically, he kind of was.

Lance huffed, his eyes widening when Keith suddenly lunged out, arms wrapping around his torso and Keith’s smile pressed against the curve of his neck. Lance’s blush was uncontainable as he wrapped his arms around Keith’s shoulders, humming lowly.

“Wow,” He huffed out a laugh, “I didn’t take you as the clingy, affection type. But hey, would you look at that.”

“Don’t get used to it. This is a once in a lifetime thing,” Keith lied.

Later that night, when Keith was alone in his empty dark room, he would lean back against cold metal as soon as his door slide shut behind him. His fingers would linger on his own face, tracing paths along his skin like Lance’s lips had.

Lance would lay awake, blinking tiredly at the ceiling, a lazy smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed :)


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